Los Angeles faced its most destructive wildfires in recent memory in January 2025, forcing over 150,000 people to evacuate. Amid the chaos, some landlords violated state laws by raising rents beyond legal maximums during the emergency, a practice known as rent gouging. In response, a spontaneous grassroots effort called The Rent Brigade emerged to document these violations and help victims seek justice.
Grassroots Initiative Launches
The initiative began with volunteer organizers creating a crowdsourced Google spreadsheet to track illegal rent increases. Within a week, the spreadsheet included over 1,500 listings, with more than 200 volunteers reporting violations to agencies like the Department of Business and Consumer Affairs, the city attorney, and the state attorney general. Media outlets quickly dubbed the group “volunteer sleuths” and “the spreadsheet brigade,” highlighting their scrappy but urgent work.
The Rent Brigade evolved from an emergency response into a formal organization, establishing a website domain and membership structure. Founders included Lauren Harper, a data manager at Stay Housed LA, and Chelsea Kirk, a policy director at Strategic Actions for a Just Economy and an organizer with the L.A. Tenants Union. However, most volunteers came from diverse backgrounds—software engineers, graphic designers, data analysts, artists, and writers—with no prior tenant organizing experience.
Related Post: U.S. housing crisis leaves seniors without age-friendly options
The group’s efforts exposed widespread rent gouging, a recurring issue in California emergencies. Penal Code 396 prohibits rent increases over 10 percent during declared emergencies, but enforcement is weak. The Rent Brigade made data publicly accessible via dashboards and reports, compiling briefings for policymakers to demonstrate the issue’s scale. Public outrage followed, pressuring officials to act.
Policy Responses Take Shape
In response to the crisis, Los Angeles Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez introduced a rent-gouging transparency motion in February 2025, demanding progress reports from the city attorney. The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to increase civil penalties for price gouging from $10,000 to $50,000 per violation. The city raised fines from $1,000 to a maximum of $30,000 and established a private right of action for tenants. State Senators Lola Smallwood-Cuevas and Tom Umberg introduced Senate Bill 36 to strengthen enforcement and require housing platforms to prevent illegal increases.
ICE Raids Complicate Housing Crisis
In early June 2025, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted raids across Los Angeles, complicating the housing crisis. Organizers redirected volunteers to defend immigrant communities, partnering with groups like the L.A. Tenants Union and Unión del Barrio. The Rent Brigade, along with Community Power Collective and Chinatown Community for Equitable Development, surveyed over 125 immigrant tenants and compiled data on ICE activity. Their report, Disappeared and Displaced: ICE Pushes LA Tenants Toward Eviction, became the foundation for the EVICT ICE, NOT US! coalition, which demanded the Board of Supervisors raise the evictable rent debt threshold to $25,000 and pass a countywide eviction moratorium.
Despite challenges in Los Angeles County’s fragmented political environment of 88 incorporated cities, the campaign secured $20 million in rental assistance and a motion declaring a state of emergency. The Board of Supervisors raised the evictable rent debt threshold in unincorporated areas from one to two months of rent, though incorporated cities remained unaffected. The effort highlighted how housing instability stems from profit-driven practices, reinforcing the need for sustained tenant organizing beyond crisis responses.
Related Post: New Housing Law Grants Permanent Disaster Recovery Funding
Long-Term Vision and Challenges
At the start of 2026, The Rent Brigade reflected on its growth and challenges. The organization, with 200 dues-paying members from a 1,800-person listserv, aimed to build lasting political power. Founders grappled with strategic questions about their long-term vision and role within Los Angeles’ tenant movement, recognizing the need to counter a well-resourced real estate lobby with significant political influence. Their mission centered on transforming housing from a commodity into a public good, advocating for policies that prioritize tenant stability over profit.
Challenging the Real Estate Lobby
The Rent Brigade’s vision centers on treating housing as a human right, not a commodity, drawing inspiration from housing scholar Catherine Bauer’s manifesto Modern Housing. This requires sustained demand across income levels to counterbalance real estate interests. However, the California Apartment Association, with over 20,000 members and control of more than 2 million rental units, maintains significant political influence.
Recent defeats, such as a failed eviction moratorium, highlighted the lobby’s power to block tenant-friendly legislation. The organization’s 200 dues-paying members represent an active core, but expanding to Los Angeles’ 2.4 million renters demands broader recruitment. By framing renting as a dignified, permanent state rather than a temporary step toward homeownership, the group aims to build a permanent tenant class capable of restructuring housing policy.
